Stories for January 31, 2010

As the nation mobilized for war in the spring of 1918, ailing Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with influenza, a disease about which doctors knew little. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 600,000 people — more than died in all the wars of this century combined — before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.

In Atlantic City, New Jersey, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW and appraiser Andy Ourant dip into a discussion of the market for swimsuit-clad, early 20th-century bisque figurines, known as bathing beauties. Program highlights include a collection of Enrico Caruso memorabilia brought by his grandson and a pair of heirloom boxwood and ivory figurines estimated to be worth $50,000 to $75,000, but if confirmed to be 18th-century originals by sculptor Simon Troger, could be worth $400,000.